O'Driscoll Boys

The O'Driscoll Boys were an Irish-American outlaw gang of the Wild West which operated out of Nebraska and Colorado during the late 19th century. The gang was founded by Colm O'Driscoll, who was known as a ruthless criminal; he hired any man who could carry a gun or could ride a horse, taking little interest in the lives (or even names) of his employees. His gang was rivals with the Van der Linde Gang, and both gangs were hunted down by law enforcement during the 1890s. In 1899, the gang robbed and murdered 21 people (among them Reverend Alex H. Hughes) in a wave of stagecoach and shipment robberies, and they also took over a large ranch in the Big Valley region of Colorado and killed the family and the ranch hands who lived there. The O'Driscoll and Van der Linde war raged throughout 1899, and the O'Driscolls even killed and mutilated the defector Kieran Duffy after tracking him down in Louisiana. Colm O'Driscoll was later arrested and executed in New Orleans, and the remnants of his gang were wiped out in a shootout with the Van der Linde Gang at the Hanging Dog Ranch.